Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1910 — A GERMAN ARMY of 4,000,000 READY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A GERMAN ARMY of 4,000,000 READY

HE peace strength of the German army has risen during the past year to 620,000 men of all ranks and 111,820 horses. The number of reservists called out for training during the year has risen to 656,398, excluding officers, or an increase of more Wjegrjjtjk than 110,000 over the figures for 1906. The German plan is to train each soldier twice for fourteen days while in the reserve and once for fourteen days while in the Landwehr. The

number of reservists recalled during the year for training has risen of late at the rate of 30,000 a year and will continue to rise until the plan is in full operation. Thus there are and hereafter will be more than a million men under ayms at one time or another each year. The year 1907 is the last for which complete statistics of recruiting have been published. The recruits examined numbered 1,189,845, among whom there were 532,000 df the age of 20 who were examined for the first time. In all 435,933 were incorporated in the armed forces, including 212,661 in the active army and 10,374 in the navy. About one-half of the army recruits were 20 and the remainder 21 or 22. There were only two one-hun-dredths of 1 per cent of illiterates. Voluntary engagements numbered 53*900 fer the army and 3,839 for the navy. "'"ttei uittuj teads tbe world in aeronautics;” says a writer; -“and tha last year has only confirmed her supremacy in the air. Her aerial fleet consists of twelve dirigibles, systems Zeppelin, Parseval and Gross, while there are fifteen other dirigibles in private hands susceptible of heing roquisitioned. The German plan is to act by methods of registration and subsidy r to prepare, as for the navy, the establishments and the means for rapid construction and to aim in particular at increased speed so as to obtain relative independence of the weather. The Successful trial of the Gross HI., which made over 37 miles an hour on her trial trip on Dec. 31, is a case in point. » "In many other directions there has been steady progress in prepare ing the army for war. The officers at the war school have been increased from 400 to 480. A census of motor carriages has shown that there aro 41,727 of all classes available for requisition, and during the maneuvers of last year great use was made of them and also of motor cyclists, who will probably be formed into special corps. Mobile field kitchens have given good results and will soon be in general use. Wireless stations are being erected at various places. The latest census of horses shows that Germany possesses 4,345,000 horses of all sorts, including 3,500,000 four-year-olds and upward. "It will be with young and highlytrained men, aged from 24 to 27, that the first great blow will be struck, in case of war, and all attention has been concentrated upon making the first echelon of the army as perfect as human efTort can compass. The record of the last year shows “that" from almost every point of view the German army continues to receive constant accessions of material and moral strength.”